The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service with plans to kill 3,600 barred owls in California, Oregon, and Washington in an attempt to bolster the threatened spotted owl. The government agency has been considering the plan since 2005, but was stalled due to environmentalists’ objections.
鈥淲e can鈥檛 ignore the mounting evidence that competition from barred owls is a major factor in the northern spotted owl鈥檚 decline, along with habitat loss,鈥 said Service Director Dan Ashe in a statement.
Barred owls are considered by the USFWS to directly compete for resources with the less aggressively spotted owl.
The , saying in a response to the announcement that “To move forward with killing barred owls without addressing the fundamental cause of spotted owl declines, from our perspective, is not acceptable.”